Looking ahead

There’s no sugar-coating it; last night as painful. Losses are hard, but they’re especially bad when a team has beaten you 28 straight times prior. Even worse, Kentucky was in one of its best positions to down the Gators in a long time — the fanbase was hyped, Florida is relatively weak, and UK had quality motivation after its overtime loss last season.

However, all of that’s over and the only direction to look is forward. The reality of the situation is that Kentucky is still in a very good position to get six wins and make their first bowl game since 2010. As a reminder, here are the remaining games on Kentucky’s schedule and their chances to win them:

Likely wins:Eastern Kentucky, @Vanderbilt, Charlotte

The Cats still have to play two scrubs and a Vanderbilt team that doesn’t appear to be any better than last season. These wins alone should get Kentucky to five — meaning they only have to steal one of the remaining six to go bowling.

Likely losses:@Mississippi State, @ Georgia

Not to say that the Cats stand no chance of pulling one or two of these out, but the odds are slim. Assuming that UK loses both of these, they’re left with:

Toss-ups:Missouri, Auburn, Tennessee, Louisville

Kentucky has four winnable home games remaining on the schedule. Louisville is 0-3, and Missouri and Auburn both look to be worse than we originally thought. Tennessee may prove to be a bit tougher, but a win at home wouldn’t be hard to fathom. UK only needs to pull out one of these to go bowling — a feat that (knock on wood) doesn’t seem hard, if not likely.
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Despite the disappointing loss last night, the win at South Carolina still leaves Kentucky in a very good position going forward.

63 Commentsfor Looking ahead

people need to realize this Florida team has more talent, depth, speed, and athleticism than UK has EVER had in its history – 3 straight top 10 recruiting classes from 2012 to 2014 and one of them ranked top 5 (per scout.com). And we were a dropped touchdown pass from beating them.
To all the idiots bashing Towles – how can he throw when he has a defensive lineman hanging on him EVERY time he drops back to pass? Our OL was absolutely dominated by superior athletes, absolutely dominated.
The fact that Coach Stoops has us even in this game, in year 3 of his regime, is a miracle. If Joker were still coaching, we would’ve lost last night by 63 points – guaranteed.

he also does not appear to have that “mental clock” that good QB’s have. Quickly go thru your positions and if its not there, throw it away. He had plenty of time to throw the ball into the stands on that horrible sack he took late, I have come to the conclusion that Towles is just average. Those preseason SEC QB rankings that UK fans griped about were about right. Stoops is in a quandary….he can’t really pull Towles now, but I have a hard time believing that Drew Barker doesn’t have WAY more upside.

Also, while Grier kept killing us with his scrambling ability, why doesn’t Towles look to run upfield more? ugh.

Shelby I agree – really had trouble with FL front 4 and they were able to lay back in coverage. towles had some scenarios where he will need to learn to throw it away, but all in all he didn’t make ill advised throws. He’s learning and I think we played a very tough D last night.

I am still bullish we can beat Mizzou and EKU, and have a BIG opportunity when Auburn comes to town.

To me, this was more than a loss, this was our opportunity to really invest the fanbase into football, to impress all our recruits, and finally to prove we were actually taking large steps forward. I recognize a bowl is still huge for us, but the fact that we couldn’t find a way to win at home, against the worst FL team in decades, with the loudest and roughness Commonwealth has been in years, is incredibly disappointing. I recognize that our Oline play was bad, and that we had three dropped passes, but on 30% of Patrick’s towles throws he had a ton of time, the receivers were open, and he just made horrid passes. Over the last 7 games he has a 50% completion rating, and more INT than TD. That is completely unacceptable.

Ksr can spin it any way they want pt sucks the play calling was atrocious the stadium is going from a sell out to having to give tickets out at the gas station why didn’t we spend that 120 million dollars on rupp arena at least we would have seen a return on the investment free drew barker !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ready for basketball

go cheer for alabama football than you effing fair-weather fan, you can’t just pick and choose which sport you support as a true uk fan, it’s fans like you that give recruits more of a bad taste about us than the actual team or play calling or what have you. please do us all a favor and go cheer for someone else.

There’s no reason to be “looking ahead”…. nothing’s going to change with this team, or this program. Last night was a prime example of everything that’s wrong with UK Football. New coach, new players…it doesn’t matter, because the more things change, the more they stay the same. Our (offensive) offense is so anemic and 1-dimensional, you could easily fit the entire “playbook” on a postage stamp. We might as well convert some of our 2nd-string 300 lb linemen to TE, because we apparently have no use for the position in our offense. And when receivers weren’t dropping passes, Patrick was overthrowing them like WCS was his target.

And as much as I love UK Basketball, there’s not another NCAA football program in the country that would have trotted the men’s BB team out onto the field during such a huge game, for a standing ovation that far surpassed anything else that came from the stadium last night. I’m sure that was great for the football team’s morale.

Our fanbase is just awful. The same ones bashing Stoops were the same ones demanding Brooks be fired in year 3 of his rebuilding job. Stoops is doing a great job turning this program around. With that said, I’m ready to see Barker got some snaps and see what he can do. I think he is the future, so I’d like to start working toward that.

At some point, you have to wonder if it’s the program, and not the offensive Coordinator. Joker’s play calls were horrid. Neal Brown came from Texas tech, where his offenses were regularly National top 5. he suddenly got VERY conservative in his play calling. Shannon Dawson came is with a reputation was an offensive mastermind. But it’s the same old bland, uninspiring play calling that we’ve seen at UK since Hal Mumme left. Something about calling plays in Lexington turn an OC into mush.

No way this team has a prayer against Tenn. , Auburn, and UL. Watch next weekend when the Mizzu QB looks like an all pro and we got stuck with the worst QB in the league. Towles is an OVC type player who is WAY out of his ability.

So the moral of the story everyone, if we win against small teams we can go to a toilet bowl just to say we went to a bowl game. Expectations at KSR aren’t very high. On a side note, Towles is NOT the QB to take this team to the next level. His inaccuracy is killing us. Hell if you can’t make a play don’t just stand there and take a sack, get rid of the damn ball. At least he has nice hair I guess.

fairweather fans!!!!! Last night was a matter of jimmies and joes, not x’a and o’s! They kicked our O lines butt!!!! When we get our current roster developed and add Drake Jackson and Co you will see UK dominate up from like UF did to us. Our Defense played well guys. Floridas D will keep them in a lot of games this year. We’re getting closer all the time.

LOL…”UK dominate up from” or I guess you meant up front. Do you not understand that while UK may upgrade its O line and D line with a couple of 4* recruits, that UF, UGA, UT, LSU, Bama, Ole MIss, etc.will continue to bring in multiple 4/5* recruits themselves. We aren’t competing in a vacuum…. just like UK’s tremendously improved recruiting still gets us ranked the 11th to 14th class in the SEC. But never fear…we are young…. next year is the year.

I think we need to give Patrick one more start. If he doesn’t turn it around against Mizzou there are no excuses. And it would be the best time in the schedule to bring in Drew (w EKU game). I like Patrick a lot, but this is D1 football – need to play better.

We will not win any big name games this year. Not unless their offense plays terribly and our defense scores some touchdowns.

1) I love Patty Ice. I really do, but he is WAY too inconsistent and chokes hard on big pressure situations 80% of the time. If he was remotely consistent, then we win that game last night with some breathing room.

2) It’s really not Patty’s fault last night though. Our Receivers killed us. At the start of the game, when Dorian Baker dropped a touchdown pass that hit him right in the breadbasket I knew the game was over. When our receivers suck it up, Patty struggles with consistency. It gets in his head, which is understandable. If Baker catches that easy ball, then that’s a 14 point swing, Patty stays fairly consistent because of momentum, and UK wins fairly easily.

My 9 year old daughter was watching the game with me. She said, “Wow Daddy, I could have caught that ball. It hit him right in the stomach.” She isn’t wrong…

If Patrick can get consistent and quit choking in pressure and our receivers can catch a freakin ball…then we have a good chance to go bowling…but I highly doubt the tiger can change its stripes…considering this is the same thing as last season. Receivers dropping passes and Patty choking down the stretch.

I say we let Patty try to redeem himself @ Missouri game. If he flops, I say we put Barker in during the EKU game to send a message.

You could have had Tom Brady as KY’s quarterback last night and it wouldn’t have mattered because the O-line was awful. PT had some bad throws, but he threw a lot of catchable footballs thAt were dropped. Relax

I would like to see some sweep calls to our speed backs. Almost all our run plays are power and two of our three backs are sweep guys for the most part. Way too many nine routes being thrown. I just don’t get why a six (fade) route to Bone was not called when we were inside the five and could not run ball. Towles…seems like he tries to throw ball where the receives have been instead of where they are going.

How bad must Barker be not to be able to beat out Towles?
Towles is mediocre at best. At worst, he is a liability. Two opening drive interceptions in two games!! How the hell do you take a sack and 15 yard loss on that last possession?! Are you kidding me? In a big setting, when has Towles stepped up? Maybe last year at Florida. Other than that, he hands ball off or dinks and dunk passes my 10 year can throw… And jokes on everything else
UK will maybe beat Vandy, EKU and Charolette. They aren’t beating anyone else on their schedule.
But of course next year they will be bigger, faster, stronger…. Yawn. I’m done with this BS.
We are BBGN. Big Blue Gullible Nation. I think Stoops needs another raise….

Totally agree! I’m sure Towles does look like the best QB in practice, but he clearly cannot handle the pressure of actual games under the lights and especially when the game is on the line. Has he ever lead us to a touchdown when we needed one? I think Miss St last year was probably his best game as a Cat, but even then we had three opportunities to tie the game with a touchdown in the second half, and I believe we went 3 and out all three times. Some kids wilt under the pressure, and some kids thrive on it. We’ve already seen several team this year have to go to their QB backups, and they look better. Barker deserves to play against Mizzou if for no other reason than to see if he steps his game up.

And don’t tell me I’m fair weathered. I’ve been paying to watch this crap for 30 years. How in the hell do you lose to ANYONE 29 freakin times in a row!! We suck, always will and you can delude yourself into thinking otherwise. I’ve been doing it for 3 decades. Screw this sh*t.

And I don’t give a rat’s a*s about going 6-6 and playing Eastern Montana State Northeast from the Southwest in the Chef Boyardee Bowl on December 1 in South Dakota. Amen and God Bless America!! Argh!!!!!!!!

That’s cute, KSR writers are still overhyping us and thinking we’re much better than we actually are. Tennessee is not even close to a toss-up and will destroy us. Auburn should also be a likely loss as while they were indeed overrated to begin the season, they are still a much better overall team than Florida. Also, I think Vandy should be moved to the toss-up section as no SEC road game should be considered a likely win, especially with our miserable offense. We were very fortunate to beat ULL and SC, and were one play away in each of those games from losing. I don’t really see much improvement from last year, and that’s very disappointing.

Towles is missing throws that he “normally hits?” Really. When? When he plays Madden? When he was in high school? I’m frankly shocked when he doesn’t miss a wide open receiver. He apparently has attended some passing camps put on by Morgan Newton because their passing abilities are strikingly similar. Shannon Dawson is going to ride Towles and his hair straight to the unemployment line.
We are 15 games in with him and it’s clear as day Towles isn’t answer. Clear to everyone but Stoops. If he is best we have….. We are in big trouble and all this talk about UK’s resurgence is an illusion.

Towles can’t get it done. He didn’t get it done against L-LA and he didn’t get it done against a bad South Carolina team. If you can’t pass the defense stacks the line against the run and you don’t score a touchdown for six quarters.
Even a mediocre SEC offense is better than that.
C’mon, admitting that your quarterback isn’t doing his job is not “throwing him under the bus”. It’s coaching winning football.
At least give Barker a chance.

You people make me freaking sick!!! One bad night from the offense and u are ready to bench them all. Most of u are bb fans acting like u know half if what’s happening on the field. Yrs the offense was bad last night. No doubt. But it’s something that every team in America goes through!! The almighty defending champs only managed to put up 20 on northern Illinois!! Mizz managed just 9 against uconn, and even Florida who was averaging like 48 a game put up a big 14 on us. U think their offense is happy with the way they played? Sometimes the defense just has their number. It happens occasionally in the game of football. If u think we go 5-7 then u r an idiot and just stop cheering for this team and definitely don’t try to jump back on the bandwagon if we win this sat!! I’m so tired of the pathetic fan base whining over one game! I was upset also but there were positives also last night! There’s a reason we play 12 games and not 1. Last night did not end our season. It showed me that the defense is making huge strides and can keep us in games when to off is struggling! And every offense in the country struggles at times you idiots!! Go find another team so u won’t be crying about this one when we don’t start off 3-0. And anyone who thinks this is the worst Florida team in 30 years, I’m just wandering if u even watch football. That’s the best secondary in the country and one of the best d’s we will see this yr

Much as your rant against fans recognizing reality was fun…No. We’re not talking about one year. We’re talking DECADES of being lied to, and expected to support not only this atrocious football team, but all the teams the football team carries because the University sucks the money up that could be used to improve this horrible really no good bad team, and spends it on women’s tiddly winks.

So if some fans feel the need to let off some steam, STFU. Be glad we even care this much. I remember when UL was going to drop to 1AA because their football was that bad. Guess what, at least their team has improved. Ours hasn’t.

It’s just Kentucky Football being Kentucky Football. We (the fans) should just be happy making it back to the Music City Bowl learn how to be content with that. Six to seven wins should be the expectation.

Everyone who is complaining about the O-line, do you give them credit when the offense does well or is it “PT is a beast #bestquarterbackinthesec”

I don’t like Pat he processes plays way way too slow, but this game is on Dawson. As a former defensive linemen, vanilla play calling that requires no thinking allows you to pin back your ears and attack. Dawson needs to run Pt a lot more and put our offensive line in a better position to succeed.

While some of these horribly negative statements are true, let’s try looking at yesterday a little differently. The tailgating scene at CWS was the best in years. Like thousands of other fans, I had a fantastic time yesterday/last night. At the start of the game, the environment in the stadium was insane. As far as the game goes… Our defense held a more talented Florida team to 14 points, 7 of which were basically a gift from our offense. Dawson acknowledged that the play calling needs to change. Our receivers, unlike recent years, are talented enough to create separation and get open against one of the best secondaries in the country. When given some room to run, our running backs looked great. Patrick Towles delivered some perfect passes that were simply dropped, including one in the first few minutes that probably would have electrified the crowd and possible won the game.

We are 2-1 and really have only 2 games left on our schedule that are likely to be losses. Say those 2 are losses and we go 50% in the “toss up” games (Mizzu, Auburn, Tenn, Louisville). That is a 7-5 season.

This is a very young. Team that will only get better. Let’s stop focusing on the negatives, provide some positive reinforcement and enjoy football season.

Really. “One bad night”??!! You are apparently new to UK football so let me get u current. Last year under Towles we went 0-6 to end year. He was horrible. This year? Well, here is what we know. Towles disappears in second half of LL game which we pull out. First series of SC game, he throws INT to give up score. Played well for rest of first half then disappeared. We won because of our defense and running game. Last night, in biggest game maybe ever, he throws INT first series that led to a score in 5 point loss and then disappeared. Our defense held Florida to 14 POINTS!!!!See a pattern here?
It’s obvious that Stoops doesn’t trust Towles. How else you explain the run run run last night?
UK will not win 6 games this year. So keep accepting the status quo and getting sick because people are pointing out the obvious. You don’t want to hear it…. Good F’ing luck!
Good luck also to those people thinking Auburn, Tennessee , etc…. are “toss up games”! OMG. Stay away from bookies!!!

Tommy Cats Fan… Given your belief that UK will forever suck at football and Towles is the worst qb in the country, why are you so upset? Because some fans want to acknowledge that football, unlike basketball, requires more than a couple recruiting classes to become very good? UK wasn’t competitive a few years ago. They lost a close game to a team from the state with probably the most high school football talent in the country last night. And if you think they have no chance against Mizzu, Auburn, Tennnesse, and/or Louisville, then you haven’t watched any of those teams play. They had a couple of chances to win last night, even though towles, the O line, and the wr’s did not play well.

Also, last night, just before he threw that int on the first drive, he threw a perfect pass that should have been a TD, but was clearly dropped. That catch is made. UK wins that game.

I once remember hearing Bill Parcels saying loyalty to a starting QB cost more coaches their jobs than anything else. I hope Coach Stoopes doesn’t do so. Patrick has been at the helm for over a year, he has lost 7 of the last 9 games he has started in. Does ANYONE see any improvement in that time. I am not at practice so I don’t really know what our backup situation is but I can’t see how giving someone else a shot could be much worse but the we don’t know do we. Finally I will address coaching, by coaching I mean game planning adjusting as the game develops and taking maximum advantage of opportunities as the present themselves. UK as a staff is not SEC calibre in this department IMO. One(of many I could mention) example; Floridas tackle is eating our O Line alive throughout the game. Did anyone see any attempt to give our obviously overmatched tackle some help by say having a back or tightened fall back and help him. Since we don’t utelize our tight ends in the passing game anyway(another story) how would that be a problem. You didn’t see it because it didn’t happen. Since we are willing to spend millions to renovate the stadium let’s open the checkbook and get some top flight assistants in here to give Stoopes some help he obviously needs. Look at the other SEC teams and look how many assistants there go on to be hired as head coaches at top schools. When is the last time a UK assistant was hired for such a job.Coaching matters in football, more so IMO than any other sport and UK is overmatched in SEC games.